Exactly, these parts end up in shops that can separate PCBs and swap and program BGA chips. They just remove and replace the security ICs.
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How Stolen iPhones Travel From Western Streets to Chinese Markets
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Exactly, these parts end up in shops that can separate PCBs and swap and program BGA chips. They just remove and replace the security ICs.
Apparently these thieves are getting smarter. They would spy on someone using their iPhone to try and obtain the passcode.
Once they snatched it, they unlock with passcode and change the apple id password. If they are successful with that, they can sign out and have an unlocked iPhone.
To prevent this loophole, you have to turn ON stolen device protection.
support.apple.com
Once they snatched it, they unlock with passcode and change the apple id password. If they are successful with that, they can sign out and have an unlocked iPhone.
To prevent this loophole, you have to turn ON stolen device protection.
About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone - Apple Support
Stolen Device Protection adds a layer of security when your iPhone is away from familiar locations, such as home or work.
Apparently these thieves are getting smarter. They would spy on someone using their iPhone to try and obtain the passcode.
Once they snatched it, they unlock with passcode and change the apple id password. If they are successful with that, they can sign out and have an unlocked iPhone.
To prevent this loophole, you have to turn ON stolen device protection.
About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone - Apple Support
Stolen Device Protection adds a layer of security when your iPhone is away from familiar locations, such as home or work.
...and don't store your Apple account password in the Passwords app!
Again, I'm asking Apple to let the user set a separate and different passcode for the Passwords app!
I was just thinking the other day it might be time for me to drop AppleCare+ on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but reading this article, I'll plan to keep it for a while. In the past, I've kept my iPhone theft (and accident) insurance until the upgrade period begins. I plan to keep this one a bit longer.
People buying used iPhones from stalls don't care if has genuine parts or not, and there are shops in Hong Kong and China that can remove and reprogram the security chips along with being able to remove and reuse RAM, SSD, cell modem chips and the like. Even if they won't show as genuine afterwards, they are still Apple parts and still work.
For an example, here is a guy who built a 13 Pro entirely from AliExpress parts.
Upgrading the SSD chips on an iPhone 16 from 128gb to 512gb. Thiis is a super professional video, but you can have it done for much cheaper at stalls.
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I've been considering getting one of those cases that allow you to attach a strap when I travel to at least minimize getting my phone snatched while in my hand. Maybe a long enough tether to attach to your belt or some attachment point to your bag. The bag may even be one of those fancy theft resistant bags.
I would leave it in Find My for as long as possible (until you hit a device limit or something), just on the off chance that it makes a criminals' life a tiny bit harder/ less profitable.
Of the devices that I’ve lost only one has ever showed up. I lost an iPhone 3G at hunters point my fault for leaving it on a desk and getting stuck in an elevator. This was before device lock but I still saw it walking down market in sf until it went poof. An Apple Watch stolen and it never appeared and finally this is the kicker my iPad Pro. I left it on an Alaska airlines flight. Contacted the airlines and no one has seen it. On find my it was in terminal c at the corner and it would show there. Alaska didn’t find it and eventually the battery and my patience ran out about three months after loosing it I get a notification that it’s in Ukraine. Hopefully doing good work. Still locked but that’s the last I ever saw of it.
In China, thanks to facial recognition, police will be waiting at the thief’s front door, before he comes back home.
Some iPhones stolen here in Brazil are also traveling to China. A friend of mine has been receiving messages, even messages and emails (with logos and titles similar to Apple's) asking, sending tutorials, and threatening to remove the iPhone from FindMy.
I think Samsung was onto something with the galaxy note 7. What they wanted to do was a security feature where the phone will physically self destruct if stolen, but I guess they had way too many false positive situations.
I guess another benefit of US iPhones going ESIM only is they are now practically worthless as stolen devices to the rest of the world, especially in China, where there is no ESIM.
I guess another benefit of US iPhones going ESIM only is they are now practically worthless as stolen devices to the rest of the world, especially in China, where there is no ESIM.
I prefer the texas way of recovering the phone
This is a transnational crime, and the saddest part is that law enforcement know where most stolen devices end up, yet they do nothing about it. For example, in Bogotá, Colombia, everyone knows the exact location where thieves resell the phones they either pickpocket or rob at gunpoint, but the police, either complicit or not, don’t go after them.
When I was studying my master’s in Brussels, I had a small flat in Anderlecht. Everyone kept asking me if that place was as dangerous as everyone thought, and it really wasn’t. However, Anderlecht did have a bad reputation for being the place where every stolen phone in Western Europe ended up. Despite this, I loved my time there.
When I was studying my master’s in Brussels, I had a small flat in Anderlecht. Everyone kept asking me if that place was as dangerous as everyone thought, and it really wasn’t. However, Anderlecht did have a bad reputation for being the place where every stolen phone in Western Europe ended up. Despite this, I loved my time there.
CCTV is not there to keep citizens safe, but to spy on them. As a former Londoner I couldn't get out of that dystopian nightmare of a city (and country) fast enough.
My cousin’s iPhone was stolen in a bar in Miami and also ended up there. Seems like it’s a well-organised group that operates around the globe.
It's a matter of priorities for resources. The police have only so many resources to put to chasing criminals, and there are other much more serious crimes that need to be investigated. Sad, but life.
She's lucky. One of the places I live she'd likely have gotten a gun pulled on her and if she persisted, shot.
I'd get a neck tether and tuck it into your shirt when not using it.
Col. Colt is one powerful negotiator...
I only know Hong Kong from John Woo movies so I imagine that the battle between cops and iPhones blackmarket operators is corrupt on both sides and that the conflict is in slow-motion, is beautiful, and makes the case for the complexity of relationships being subsumed in a cold and unfeeling corporate world. Also flying doves.
Actually the opposite.
Apple, Samsung, and others LOVE when phones are stolen or purchased fraudulently.
OEM's get credit for devices sold, not activated, nor currently active.
